This invention relates to a test tube picker for rack stored test tubes and in particular to an ergonomic hand-held, electronic pick unit with system intelligence adapted for cord or cordless use.
The field of bioscience has exploded and its demands have advanced procedures for analytical chemistry and life science studies. Laboratories routinely employ trays to store and organize numerous test tube racks which are containment structures for densely packed upright test tubes. The test tubes are typically small polymer casings, ranging in capacity from 0.5-2 ml with or without a cap or stopper, arranged in an orthogonal matrix.
A standard rack holds ninety-six tubes in an eight by twelve matrix. Typically, the rack has a top deck with individual holes or cells into which the casings are inserted with upper portions of the casings projecting well above the deck and the lower portion of the casings retained by ribs or dividers in the containment structure. Frequently, the bottom of the rack is designed to allow viewing of the bottom of the casings, particularly when the casing bottom is marked with an identifier such as a 2-D barcode.
Sophisticated operations include robotic pickup and placement mechanisms for multi-rack test and scanning beds. Inevitably, even in sophisticated operations, the necessity arises to manually select and remove or place a single test tube at a particular location in an array of tubes.
Because the tubes are packed in an orthogonal array, grasping a single tube with one's fingers is difficult. Additionally, the racks of tubes are often heated or chilled increasing the difficulty of single tube selection.
These and other circumstances make an ergonomic hand-held tube picker a useful tool in the modern laboratory environment.